The Lancet
Dec 27, 2014 Volume 384 Number 9961 p2173-2266 e67-e69
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

Editorial
Ebola: protection of health-care workers
The Lancet
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62413-2
Summary
The Ebola outbreak in west Africa has taken a substantial toll on health-care workers in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—not only doctors and nurses, but also other cadres including ambulance drivers, hospital cleaners, and burial team members. More than 600 of the nearly 17 000 cases of Ebola virus disease have been in health-care workers, more than half of them fatal. In today’s issue of The Lancet we pay tribute to several of the health workers who have lost their lives to the disease since the outbreak began a year ago.

Obituary
Remembering health workers who died from Ebola in 2014
Andrew Green
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62417-X

Comment
HPV vaccination: for women of all ages?
Philip E Castle, Kathleen M Schmeler
Published Online: 01 September 2014
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61230-7
Summary
The discovery of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in cervical cancer by Harald zur Hausen sparked 30 years of research that established that persistent cervical infection by certain HPV genotypes causes cervical cancer. This research has led to revolutionary technical advances for the prevention of cervical cancer: prophylactic HPV vaccination and sensitive molecular HPV testing for screening. These promising technologies can be used to complement or enhance established cervical cancer prevention programmes, and to provide robust solutions in low-resource settings without screening programmes.

Comment
Offline: Can Ebola be a route to nation-building?
Richard Horton
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62387-4
Summary
At one of the first meetings of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, someone is reported to have said that if anyone present wanted to use Ebola as a reason to strengthen health systems they should leave the room. The Ebola response was about one goal and one goal only—getting to zero cases. How times have changed. Last week, WHO convened a High-Level Meeting on Building Resilient Systems for Health in Ebola-Affected Countries. What seems clear now is that Ebola in west Africa is not (only) about Ebola.

Viewpoint
Global surgery: defining an emerging global health field
Dr Anna J Dare, MBChB, Caris E Grimes, MBBS, Rowan Gillies, FRACS, Sarah L M Greenberg, Lars Hagander, MD, John G Meara, MD, Andrew J M Leather, FRCS
Published Online: 19 May 2014
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60237-3
Summary
Global health is one of the defining issues of the 21st century, attracting unprecedented levels of interest and propelling health and disease from a biomedical process to a social, economic, political, and environmental concern. Surgery, however, has not been considered an integral component of global health and has remained largely absent from the discipline’s discourse.1 After much inattention, surgery is now gaining recognition as a legitimate component of global health. In January, 2014, Jim Kim, President of the World Bank, urged the global health community to challenge the injustice of global inequity in surgical care, stating that “surgery is an indivisible, indispensable part of health care and of progress towards universal health coverage”.

Viewpoint
Improving the assessment and attribution of effects of development assistance for health
Nour Ataya, MPH, Christoph Aluttis, MSc, Prof Antoine Flahault, PhD, Prof Rifat Atun, FRCP, Prof Andy Haines, FMedSci
Published Online: 25 June 2014
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60791-1
Summary
Overseas development assistance for health (DAH) increased substantially from 2000, but has plateaued since 2010 because of the global economic crisis,1 with growing public demands for funders and beneficiary countries to show the effect of investments.2–5 When showing effect, donor agencies and countries need to address two challenges: first, accurate estimation of the effects of investments in different areas (eg, vaccines or health systems) on health outcomes; and second, attribution of the effects to specific investments.